I see that BAA are suspending all flights out of Heathrow and Stansted.

(Looks out of window)

Is that just overcast, or is it volcanic dust?

Looking at the map, they appear to be following the precautionary principle, so we probably don't actually have dust over us right now, not down here, but they don't want to send planes up into something that might cause severe damage to turbojets. (Not since the scary time a 747 lost all 4 engines and nearly came down as a result.)

That should count as a corporate suicide note. No aircraft flying, no needs for air traffic control, no point in their existence.

Or should we assume that they don't really mean the 'no flying ever again' implied by their wording?

I do wonder how long an eruption plume is likely to last - this could be interesting in a distinctly Chinese way. (Which reminds me, our Chinese colleague should be flying back from Shanghai this weekend.)

Eurocontrol, as reported by the beeb, are now reckoning on two more days of disruption, so it's touch and go for autopope ... For the time being we're on "zero flow" for IFR traffic across the entire UK airspace until at least 0600z tomorrow, with further announcements every six hours or so.

Even if full capacity returns on Sunday morning, there'll be disruption for days afterwards as planes return from being in the wrong places, passengers contend for flights and people get bounced to later flights, etc.

With luck, a lot of the incoming long-distance flights can divert to airports just outside the zone, so that when flights over to here resume, they're coming from, say, Napoli rather than Narita.